


Saltwater room

by vermicious_knid



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Peter Pan (1953), The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: F/M, Gen, darn it, the plot bunnies bit me again
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28559058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vermicious_knid/pseuds/vermicious_knid
Summary: If Ariel hadn’t been such a curious creature, she might have not found Neverland to begin with.True, it was not her aim to find it - for how could it be if she didn’t know such a place existed?
Relationships: Peter Pan/Ariel
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

If Ariel hadn’t been such a curious creature, she might have not found Neverland to begin with. 

True, it was not her aim to find it - for how could it be if she didn’t know such a place existed?

She had been racing with a flock of dolphins across the waves, and flounder wasn’t able to keep up. It had been the hour around twilight, the sky a darkening plum color. 

And two stars especially had begun to shine, both winking to get her attention -  _ see us, hear us! _

Ariel had stopped and gazed upon them, wondering if she could catch them.

_ If I had legs I could, I know I could do anything then! _

But instead she saw the mirrored reflection of them gliding on the water’s surface, diving to catch them this way - it was all a pretending sort of game, she knew. 

But when she poked her head out of the water again, she realized that maybe the line between pretending and reality can sometimes blur - because suddenly there was an island where none had been before. 

* * *

The waters below here looked different, felt different and yet the same. For a brief moment, she was scared. But then she saw several sources of light - on the edge of a tall cliff, there were odd looking houses around a big bright flame. A ship rested in the bay of the island, flickering lights coming from it’s deck. 

But what caught Ariel’s attention most of all was the very large cliff shaped like a human skull. She stared at it with wide eyes, and wondered briefly if someone had made it - and if so, why?

But the fear was gone, and all that was left was excitement. 

* * *

There were mermaids here too - and they were very much like her older sisters back home. Except for one peculiar thing - they feared no man except one Captain James Hook. 

“Don’t you know? THey say he and his crew eats mermaids for breakfast!”

They were impressed with Ariel’s collection of ribbons and other odd things from her satchel, and they each got one to put in their hair. 

“I can’t wait until Peter comes by so he can see!” One of them, the blonde Hazel had exclaimed. Ariel had quirked a brow at this new name, looking to Hazel with curious eyes.

“Peter? Who’s Peter?”

This had led to a very excited talk among the mermaids about the glorious Peter Pan, the human boy who could fly, fight with a sword and was very clever indeed. But Ariel just huffed, not very impressed by their description. She realized that these mermaids, just like her sisters, were very fond of talking but not actually  _ doing _ anything.

So she quietly left them alone to explore the island more on her own, promising to return.

* * *

Near the bay, the ocean floor was littered with numerous shipwrecks. Ariel had never seen so many all in one place - it was quite perplexing to look at. 

She realized that maybe the mermaids had a right to fear captain hook. 

But more importantly, she realized that there were a lot of interesting human things to find among the wreckage, so she wasted no time in exploring them. 

_ Whisper-sea foam, whisper to me... _ she sang quietly to herself as she ducked under a rotten plank and entered a ship that was tilting on a sea cliff, gently rocking to and fro. White sails floated gently in the water, and she pulled them aside to find something glowing amongst the rot and rust. 

It glowed as bright as the sun, but it was not the sun at all. It was small and round, attached to a piece of string that also glowed just the same. 

At first she was hesitant to touch it, thinking that maybe it was a small sun that had fallen out of the sky. But it was very cool to the touch, not harming her at all. 

THe material was harder than a shell, but smooth to the touch - the surface displayed swirling patterns that looked very beautiful. Ariel held it up, smiling as she put her new human find in her satchel. 

She had been so occupied with this that she failed to see the approaching crocodile heading straight for her. 

* * *

She had heard it approach when it got very close, and had just enough time to swim up through a crack in the hull when it came crashing in, snapping its very large jaws at her. Ariel swam quickly to and fro, hoping to loose it amongst the wrecks - but the crocodile was much faster than a shark. 

She was looking behind her to see if it was still following her when she suddenly bumped into something in front- a solid wall of stone. There was nowhere to escape to. 

In a fit of fear she closed her eyes, not wanting to witness the jaws that would devour her any moment now. 

But the moment never came. 

Because somebody had picked her out of the water, at lightning speed. 

* * *

Ariel’s eyes were still closed as she felt something pull her up and out of the water. She held onto whatever this was for all she was worth, and only opened her eyes when she heard a large thud. 

She looked down to see the crocodile smash into the stone wall, falling into the deep waters below. She breathed out a huge sigh of relief, and then looked to see what had rescued her. 

It was then she realized that this something had their arms securely around her, and that she was several feet into the air. The something was not a something, but a someone. 

Peter pan looked down at her with inquisitive, peculiar eyes - a shade of green Ariel had never seen before. Despite the fact that it was  _ him _ who had saved  _ her _ , he looked as stunned about the situation as she did. 

* * *

“You - you must be the girl the other mermaids were talking about. Is that true?”

For some reason, Ariel had momentarily lost the ability to speak. When the mermaids had told her about Peter, they had made it sound like he was a child - but he was not. Actually, he looked to be about Ariel’s own age. He was built out of wire and pure stubbornness, and despite looking like a human, there was something also not-human about him. It was the way he moved - it was in his smile when he talked. 

Ariel combed her hair over one shoulder with her fingers, felt frazzled for no reason at all. 

She finally nodded at his question. 

Peter kept jumping from rock to rock around her - sometimes flying as he did so, sometimes not.

“Well, if that is so, be careful around the wrecks from now on. The old croc likes to hunt for his dinner here.” he explained and Ariel nodded again. 

Peter stopped on a rock and regarded her seriously for a moment. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Then he turned his head and smiled in a feral way as he saw captain hook’s ship in the distance.

“I gotta go now, urgent pirate business. I’ll see you around!” 


	2. Chapter 2

It is a different thing for a mermaid to gain passage to a place like neverland than it is for humans. 

Or maybe that was just the case with this one particular mermaid, because all that Ariel had to do was chase that one morning star on the horizon, along with its smaller sibling.

Each night, they seemed to wink at her, beckon her to join them. 

It was hard to say no to anything if your name was Ariel and your father only wanted you to sit quietly and behave. 

* * *

Despite Peter’s warning about the bay, Ariel couldn’t keep away - but she did become more careful, making sure that no crocodile was near. 

The fish here did not speak or sing, which was strange. So Ariel had to fill up the silence with her own voice, her own songs. 

And despite the warnings of keeping away from the ship and its captain from the mermaids, Ariel was simply too curious. She had to get up close and see them for herself - and she was so used to being warned about every little thing from her father back home, it was tiresome. 

The pirates were oddly shaped men - some missing an arm or a leg. They were very loud, and if they sang it was not very well. They liked to throw knappers - those pointy things that Scuttle had explained to her, at a short round man called Smee. 

Smee had actually seen Ariel twice already - but each time he had just attempted to shoo her off - like a bothersome housefly. Her presence had not shocked him at all. 

“Oh goshdarn it - you fishfolk have no business here. Go now, go! The captain is in such an ill mood already!” he had said, kicking the air in front of him with one foot. Ariel had smirked but not budged, lowering her voice to a whisper. 

“Will you just tell me...what is that thing on your face? “ she asked, and the question came so unexpected that Smee forgot that he was supposed to be a burly, unpleasant pirate. He blinked and lowered himself to where Ariel was hiding in a lifeboat. 

“On my - on my face? You mean my glasses?”

“Glasses! So that’s what they’re called. What do they do?”

* * *

She really hadn’t meant to take them off his face - Smee had dropped them on the deck when the captain suddenly bellowed his name. 

He had explained that they made him see better - but as Ariel tried them on herself, she could not see through them at all! 

She was sitting on a rock and blinking and squinting through them when Peter suddenly landed next to her on the rock, as quiet as a bird.

“You’re not like the other mermaids.” He said by way of greeting, and Ariel squinted, only making out a blurry green shape. 

“Maybe that’s true. You’re not like other men I’ve seen.” she said, and Peter crouched down next to her, mimicking her squinting expression. 

“You sing all the time.” he said then, and that made her nervous for some reason. She handed him the glasses and he put them on, attempted to look at the horizon but couldn’t see it. 

Ariel put her knees up on the rock and rested her head on them, watching him almost lose his balance as he stood up, the glasses making him disoriented. 

“How do you know that?” 

Peter shrugged, pocketed the glasses and looked away - as if the conversation held no interest for him at all. 

“I can hear you at night, singing. Why do you sing so much?”

“Why do you fly?”

* * *

The water is dark and quiet in the evening, and the indian drums are beating like a heartbeat, echoing across the island. Ariel can see the tiny figures of the indians there on the cliff, dancing in a circle around the large flame. 

Fireflies are dancing above the surface of the still waters, emitting their powerful glow and lighting up the dark like candles burning brightly. 

Ariel rests her hands on a rock and sighs. She so wishes she could join them, and dance herself on two legs. 

She knows that Peter and his friends - the lost boys that follow him around everywhere, are celebrating with the indians tonight because of a recent victory against the pirates. Humans fight amongst each other a great deal, it turns out - but so far, nobody has ever tried to put her on a hook. 

Ariel isn’t even sure why she came on this night, knowing that she would not have Peter for company. 

Instead she sits up on the rock and sings in time with the drums she hears - but it is not a joyful song that she sings. 

It’s full of longing, and of emotions she hardly understands herself. 


End file.
